Hansel Edges Strike The Gold in Belmont

This was the way the Triple Crown series was meant to end, the Kentucky Derby winner and the Preakness winner battling in the final yards of the Belmont Stakes.

Pat Day, riding Corporate Report well back in fourth place, had a good view along with 51,766 spectators at Belmont Park Saturday as Hansel, the winner of the Preakness, and Strike The Gold, the first-place finisher of the Derby, sped toward the wire of the 1 1/2-mile marathon together.

“I was reading in the paper today that this year’s Belmont was supposed to be plain vanilla,” Day said. “But in light of that finish, it was anything but. The industry needed something like that.”

Hansel beat Strike The Gold by a head, the smallest Belmont margin since Affirmed swept the Triple Crown by beating Alydar by a head in 1978. Hansel won the $417,480 winner’s share of the $695,800 purse and clinched the $1-million bonus that goes to the horse with the best performances in the Triple Crown.

For his owners, plus trainer Nick Zito and jockey Chris Antley, Strike The Gold came within inches of duplicating his dramatic charge in the Derby five weeks ago on a day when Hansel, the betting favorite, ran 10th. Three weeks back, in the Preakness, Strike The Gold went off the favorite and finished sixth.

Saturday’s 11-horse field turned into a two-horse race by the stretch, with Mane Minister becoming the first horse to finish third in all the Triple Crown races. He trailed Strike The Gold by three lengths across the finish line, and was 2 1/2 lengths better than Corporate Report in fourth place. The rest of the order of finish was Scan, Quintana, Lost Mountain, Smooth Performance, Subordinated Debt, Green Alligator and Another Review, who was eased at the top of the stretch.

Hansel, a bleeder whose ability to win in New York was questioned because that state bans the diuretic Lasix, was the second betting choice and paid $10.20, $6.40 and $5. Strike The Gold, the 2-1 favorite, returned $5 and $4 and Mane Minister, at 17-1, paid $4.40.

Hansel’s time of 2:28 was slow for a track that had been playing extremely fast for more than a week. All of the horses carried the Triple Crown weight of 126 pounds.

Horses must run in all three races to be eligible for the Triple Crown bonus, and based on a 10-5-3-1 system for finishing in the first four, Hansel totaled 20 points, with Strike The Gold having 15, Mane Minister nine and Corporate Report five.

“My horse just didn’t run his race at all in the Derby,” said Frank Brothers, trainer of Hansel. “I knew that wasn’t Hansel (in the Derby). I knew he was much better than he showed that day.”

Jerry Bailey, who rode Hansel, was flailing away left-handed all the way through the Belmont stretch, as was Antley aboard Strike The Gold. Hansel, owned by Houston businessman Joe Allbritton, drifted away from the rail in the final strides and was near the middle of the track at the finish.

“That’s smart race-riding,” Zito said.

Both Zito and Antley thought that Strike The Gold’s outside post position could have been a factor, considering how close the finish was.

“When you get beat by a head, you think of a hundred million answers to how it happened,” Antley said. “If we had had a better post, we would have been able to glide into position going into the first turn. In the last part of the race, Hansel was tiring. My horse had the momentum and the other horse was coming back to me. I wish the race had been a mile and a half and four more jumps.”

Another Review, who went off at 99-1, took the lead after a quarter of a mile. Corporate Report was in front after a half-mile in 46 3/5 seconds, the fastest opening four furlongs for the Belmont since Secretariat’s 46 1/5 en route to his world-record 2:24 in 1973.

Hansel was in third place from the start. Antley, following Zito’s instructions, dropped Strike The Gold to the inside, in last place, leaving the gate. “You can’t lay close with this horse,” Antley said. “Mentally, he just does what he wants to do.”

Hansel was trying to pull Bailey to the lead going down the backstretch, but the jockey knew it was too soon and was able to restrain his mount. With five-eighths of a mile to go, Bailey told himself it was time and Hansel ranged up alongside Corporate Report. Strike The Gold, in seventh place, about nine lengths behind, was beginning to move on the outside.

As Hansel reached Corporate Report and Pat Day, Bailey was struck by how isolated their position was. He looked over at Day and said: “It’s awful quiet up here.”

Day looked back and said: “Yeah, and nobody’s even close.”

At the head of the stretch, Hansel was 2 1/2 lengths ahead, and Strike The Gold had moved past all the challengers except Hansel. Bailey didn’t know who was behind him; he was too concerned about how much stamina Hansel had left.

“The last eighth of a mile, his heart got him home,” Bailey said. “Leaving the eighth pole, he had no acceleration. He was just giving me his heart and will then.”

When Hansel reached the head of the lane, Joe Allbritton watched from his box seat and wondered right along with his jockey. “The question was whether he had enough gas in his tank,” Allbritton said. “Now we know the answer. He came in empty, but he had just enough gas to reach the wire.”